Greece will require all visitors travelling to the country, including those from European Union countries, to show PCR test taken within 48 hours of arrival, the country’s health ministry said Wednesday.
The move comes just a day after Italy imposed a similar condition, triggering some pushback from the EU over the unilateral move.
The Greek decision is part of the government’s measures to stem the Covid pandemic amid worries about the new omicron variant, the ministry said.
The requirement enters into effect at 6 a.m. local time on Dec 19th with the only exception applying to travellers who remained in another country for less than 48 hours.
Greece continues to see high daily increases in new coronavirus cases as well as high numbers of new hospitalisations and deaths.
Greece confirmed 4,801 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, with 12 of these identified at entry points to the country, the National Public Health Organization (EODY) said on Wednesday.
Since the pandemic began, Greece has confirmed 1,017,445 infections. In the confirmed cases of the last 7 days,137 infections are related to travel from abroad and 2,837 to other confirmed cases.
Covid-19 vaccination day 354 in Greece:
111,885 vaccinations yesterday (15,867,937 in total)
Vaccinated at least once: 10,871 - 7,286,801 - 67.98%
Vaccinated fully: 15,828 - 6,804,015 - 63.48%
Booster shot: 85,902 - 2,502,762 - 23.35%
